Straight from the Inprint press release:
Cool Brains! Inprint Readings for Young People celebrates summer reading with a presentation by bilingual children’s writer René Saldaña, Jr., on Sunday, June 27, 3 p.m. (doors open at 2:30) at Talento Bilingue de Houston, 333 S. Jensen Drive. Admission is free and open to the public. Saldaña will read from and talk about his work, followed by an onstage interview with mystery book aficionado David Thompson of Murder By The Book. Audience members will have a chance to visit with the author afterwards at the book sale and signing.
For more information, click here, or call 713-521-2026.
René Saldaña, Jr., grew up in Nuevo Peñitas in the Rio Grande Valley. His semi-autobiographical first novel for young readers, The Jumping Tree, was described by The New York Times Book Review as a “warm coming-of-age novel.” His second book, The Whole Sky Full of Stars, is, according to a starred Booklist review, “about the perils of friendship and the burdens of parental expectations.” Saldaña is also the author of Finding Our Way: Stories, which explores the many ways teens can feel lost. School Library Journal says, “With a deft touch, the author creates a clear, concise picture of time and place (along the Texas border or Georgia) with characters who sound and think like today’s teens . . . These powerfully written, provocative selections have universal appeal.”
Saldaña will read from his newest book, The Case of the Pen Gone Missing: A Mickey Rangel Mystery / El caso de la pluma perdida. A longtime fan of Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew detective stories, in this book Saldaña develops his own spin on detective stories through the character of Mickey Rangel, a web-licensed kid detective protagonist. Kirkus Reviews writes of the book: “it will engage intermediate readers in both languages, English and Spanish, and offers multiple possibilities for school projects, group discussions and read-aloud sessions.” The Case of the Pen Gone Missing is the first in this bilingual series.
There once was an adventurer. His name was Jim. He ventured all over the world with his love for petals and poems. He traveled to Madagascar in search of a rare red-and-black flower to press onto a poem he thought of in a dream.
